Pembina can't predict Oregon plant launch

Canadian energy company Pembina Pipeline Corp. said it could no longer specify a future start date for the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Oregon.

Pembina said late Thursday in its fourth-quarter earnings report that it recognized a $1.6 billion impairment in the value of certain assets, including a petrochemical project, investments in the Wyoming-to-Oregon Ruby gas pipe and Jordan Cove.

“We believe the time for these projects may come; however, we can sadly no longer predict with certainty when that time will be,” the company said.

Shares of the Calgary-based

company were down more than 5 per cent, at $32.89 in early Friday trading in Toronto.

The US$8 billion Jordan Cove is one of several major energy projects that received strong support from former U.S. President Donald Trump but have since failed to move forward.

Others examples include TC Energy Corp.'s US$8 billion Keystone XL crude pipe, Williams Cos. Inc.'s roughly US$1 billion Constitution gas pipe and Dominion Energy Inc.'s US$8 billion Atlantic Coast gas pipe.

Federal energy regulators approved construction of Jordan Cove in March 2020, but the project failed to receive water permits from Oregon amid opposition from Native American tribes and environmental and local groups.

Backers of Jordan Cove emphasized that its position on the U.S. west coast puts it closer to fast-growing Asian markets than Gulf Coast terminals, which have to send LNG through the recently-congested Panama Canal. They had hoped the project would be operational by 2025.

Jordan Cove is designed to produce around 7.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, equivalent to about 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas, or enough to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day.